WOW ~ Word of the Week ~ Barnaby

I’m no dancer.

I’m not “a full body dry heave set to music,” a la Elaine Benes, but I’ll certainly never be accused of having grace or style. I enjoy music and I move to it, but in the privacy of my own home (or in public when necessary to embarrass family members wishing me to “for heaven’s sake, stop.”)

Elaine Benes, as portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in “The Little Kicks” episode of Seinfeld.

Poor, or questionable dancing, is the gift that keeps on giving. For every talented hoofer, there are dozens of us born with the gift of varying levels of “nope.”

Mr. Darcy, “Every savage can dance” quote from 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation from BBC/A&E.

Barnaby

An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines,

  Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly,
  And make the world dance Barnaby.

My favorite, cringe-inducing dance scene comes from the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. La, Mr. Collins!

From comedy duo Mitchell and Webb comes a reimagining of the Meryton Assembly (NSFW language warning at 1:38; Darcy getting jiggy with it warning at 2:08).

• Slang term taken from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.